Hay-on-Wye, the book town of the world ...

 The river Wye winds its way across Herefordshire & after overnighting in Ross-on-Wye,  I really wanted to visit the well known Y Gelli Gandryll or Hay-on-Wye, known for its book shops & literary events. It is just in Wales & again on the river Wye.

 

Just our luck, the heavens opened & it poured down but if you decide on something, you have to just go for it. The maxim of there is no bad weather, just the wrong clothes.

Fortunately we had umbrellas & a waterproof jacket I had thrown in on a whim. 

The 400 vehicle car park was already filling up mid morning & we parked up & walked in to the little town. 

First stop was tourist information to get some back ground info on the town. 

It is evident that all things literacy are celebrated here - the numerous bookshops cheek by jowl with each other as well as a market in the square. 

The bookshop lists help to plan if you are after a specific book or genre of books. 

The town also an impressive array of printers.

Hay Castle has a prominent position above the town - solid & imposing with some book shelves under cover at the walls, an honesty box close by. People are generally honest & this is a good welcome to the town. 

Castles are always interesting so we made our way up the wet, steep steps  to the castle & paid our entry.  

Hay Castle has a long & interesting history dating from 1091 when it was a manor house. 

The history is partly Welsh, some English, always brutal & destructive. 

It has a commanding view over the town from the viewing platform high up in the castle. 

   

A fascinating space with a long history. I did not know the history of the book connection to Hay just that it celebrated books.

 Mr Richard Booth founded the connection to books in 1961, an eccentric person who declared himself as king with his own titles etc.  

Monied eccentrics have always brightened up life on our Isles & he was no different. It was good to get up to speed on his history about the castle displays. 

The castle was restored with lottery money, a great deal of it, & it is definitely worth visiting. 

It was still bucketing down with rain when we descended from the Castle to the high street & wandered around the many shops & stalls. 

It is an absolute joy to see so many bookshops & people celebrating reading.  My first job in England was working in our local public libraries as an assistant, then later in a university library that I absolutely loved the academic buzz. I value the skill of reading very highly as an educator because it unlocks knowledge, & knowledge is power.  

I did not buy any books because I have several stacks of books that remind me that I am way behind on whittling them down ... 

My friend made this book carry pouch / bag for me for my birthday (we share a birthday) and I had a book with for my overnight trip that I had found some quiet time in a park to read a chapter or two in Ross-on-Wye. 

I am working my way through my stash of books. 

The rain had eased by the time we returned to our car & gave our parking space over to a family that had been looping the 400 vehicle car park several times so they were relieved to take our space & a fellow antipodean stopped for a quick chat ... 

On our way over the river Wye, we spied a small café near the river & pulled in for a drink & a fabulous cake.  The Treehouse café had  a delectable array of cakes & treats to enjoy on the deck overlooking the river Wye. 

The canopy of trees & a babbling river were a pleasant break from the wet town & the clouds were slowly clearing after the heavy downpours earlier. 

I am so pleased to have been to Hay on Wye & to Hay Castle, it is good to visit new places, even just once. 

Do you have more books than you can read at one time? What is your strategy for whittling them down ... 

Dee 📚📘📕📓📗📖

24 hours in Ross-on-Wye ...

 

I love history & the back stories to people & places, it puts everything in context & things make more sense. 

I joined hubby on a trip to Ross-on-Wye, a town we had not visited, he was there for an all day golf  competition, I was there to enjoy a new town, an opportunity to explore on my own as I don't visit the county of Herefordshire too often. 

The early morning drop meant I could watch the town wake up from my café seat with a hot cup of coffee after our 2 hour trip from our county. 

I downloaded the visitor guide & then set off around the many streets of the little town, walking each one to the end of the town section & popping in as many shops that caught my eye. 

This might be a bit controversial but I find vintage / antique shops to be a little lost in purpose. The town has something like 14 charity shops so home wares are very evident, & the vintage shops did not have anything that sparked my curiosity. I think we become selective as we get older & I prefer not to accumulate 'clutter', but to each their own ... 

I found the 16th century Market House to be the centre of things still. It was not a market day but people, young, old, singularly or in groups sat about on the steps or the benches, chatting, eating a sandwich, relaxing or just enjoying music from a busker in the square. 

The upstairs Made in Ross gallery had a fabulous selection of home made craft wares - paintings, music, art, felt objects, wooden items etc & it had a most fabulous view through the double doors across the square & down the street. 

Opposite was an imposing black & white building that had belonged to John Kyrle (1637 - 1724) known as The Man of Ross. He is celebrated all over town, including a memorial in St Mary's church & on a pub at the end of the High Street that celebrates him. 

     

Later on, I took my iced drink to Prospect Park next to the church that John Kyrle had given to the towns folk for leisure. 

It had a public drinking fountain at one time, essential in times past when water was not on tap. He never married but his philanthropic influence was immense. 

The park is still well used & I enjoyed the coolness under the trees, relaxing & watching some squirrels inquisitively trying to catch my eye in case I had something to eat in my bag. 

Churches are a font of local knowledge & this one was no different, set with elaborate memorials & impressive windows. St Mary's church has been the cornerstone of the town for centuries. The Gothic Markye Chapel, set to the side contains the war memorials & it is always humbling to see how many men in each town gave their life in service to their country. 

The neat row of Alms Houses  were established in England from the 10th century to provide shelter & care for the impoverished in the community, often widows left destitute & in need of support.  These  date to 1575.

    

The church also had a notice board charting the history of one family & their connection to the slave trade in Jamaica in times past. 

The notice board at the church doors gave mention of a Plague Cross & pit in the grounds & I set off to see it. 

The cross commemorates 317 souls who died in the great plague & they were hastily buried each night without coffins in pits just to the side of the cross. 

The reality of life in times past very evident, life was so fragile, death was never far in those times & mortality was high. 

The close around the church has the Royal Hotel, on the site of the Bishop's Palace that was home to the Bishop of Hereford in times past. The original timber structure dated to the 12th century. Opposite is stone walls & on its raised position it was evident that it formed part of the town walls / defences. In 1833, when the new road was built, mock gothic town walls & tower were constructed, they are now almost 200 years old  & part of the landscape, as if they had always been there. We had a drink on the pub terrace later in the evening, enjoying its elevated position over the River Wye & the surrounding countryside. 

One the end of the High Street behind this, was a The Old Court House with glass covering the original stone window with bars on it. Just opposite was a note on the old Swan and Falcon Inn to note that Horatio Nelson visited it in 1802. 

The information blue plaques & notice boards set about town & on buildings really brought the history to life so you can visualise & appreciate the long passage of time in the town. 

Because I was to be in town the whole day, I chose a central hotel, The Kings Head, a traditional coaching inn. We used to stay at a similar one in Stokenchurch before it burnt down & I love the quirkiness of these old places. 

This did not disappoint with its spaces & creaky staircase, uneven floors & dark wooden beams.   Our room was on to the High Street & cars rumbled past before it quietened down late evening. 

You could hear people moving about as the floors creaked & settled down for the night. It is sobering to think that people have stayed in this coaching inn for about 700 years. 

Breakfast was downstairs & I suddenly glanced down & saw a glass with a stone well in the floor. The landlady said the well is about 50 feet deep, not used but it was once essential in times past. This really brings the past in to focus & the age of the building is evident in these things. 

I had a very interesting 24 hours in Ross-on-Wye, I am so glad I seized the moment to have a change of scenery. 

I hope you have enjoyed the account too, 

Dee  

Experimenting with flex frames for pouches

 Summer time away from tutoring means I can spend time just playing with the sewing machine & trying out things I have had in my mind. 

I did some book bags from my Making Zen workshops in May & I loved the fabric combinations of the peacocks & blue roses, with a pale green fabric lining as well as the script fabric that is a favourite. 

I looked at the fabric bits this morning & remembered buying some flex frames some months back that I thought would be useful in little fabric purses or pouches. 

Mine were from Ebay, sold as 'metal internal flex frames' & are available in various sizes. These are about 3.5 inches long. 

Because I had not used them before I had to make it up as I went along. 

I cut 2 peacock  sides, 2 thin green lining sides, 2 script pieces to use as the channel for the flexes. 

I hemmed the 2 script pieces on the sides so the sliders would glide through, 

I assembled it ready to sew - the peacock fabric right sides up, then the narrow script channel laid on top of the first fabric, then the lining & sewed through the 3 pieces along the top. I did both sets of 3 pieces. 

I opened it up, lining up the peacock fabrics with the lining together, & the channel pieces were to the patterned side, away from the side stitching. 

I started on the bottom of the lining, leaving about 1.5 inches to turn it all through. I stitched all the way around, ending again at the bottom but leaving the opening space. 

I turned it through the opening, ironed it flat then I machine stitched the lining space because this was a test one. 

 I inserted the flex frame & had to bend the little metal part over the base to hold the pin in place. 

To improve on,  I would make the channel thinner & narrower. The channel fabric words were upside down - something to be aware of next time. 

An interesting learning curve as I have made little pouches with a channel but put in string so this is something I will try again (I also have another 9 flex frames in the pack so that might inspire me)

Is this something you have used? What tips can you share? 

Thank you for stopping by, you are always most welcome to share & comment. 

Dee 🧵🪡📍

Making Zen - a tsunobukuro style bag

I am enjoying doing some of the creative work from the May Making Zen workshops. These were the previous ones  I did recently: 

Weaving remnants with intention 

Sewing a pouch with a gusset 

On a lazy Sunday, I got to one I have been wanting to do, this tsunobukuro style bag for holding a small notebook, art on the go, a journal etc. In the workshop there was a notebook to go with it but I decided against doing it, I might still. These bags sometimes have a tie on the top or shoulder bags, mostly just a medium weight fabric  ... 

The bag construction is both simple & intricate. This is my paper template I made while watching the workshop. You start off with your rectangle, have the fold towards you. 

If the bag is not lined, it needs to have neat edges so I decided to do the lined bag which I thought would be quicker. 

My outer & lining fabric was 24 inches by 8.5 inches. 

I sewed them right sides together, leaving a space on the side to turn them through then handstitched that closed & pressed the fabric edges. 

With the fold of the rectangle towards you, the fabric is loosely folded over in a crossed over shape with about 4 inches between the folds to form a V. 

Crease the bottom fold then bring the left hand side over to meet the middle part. PIN in several places to keep that shape.

Flip the fabric over & bring the second side to meet the centre, pin again. This should now form a rectangular shape that is taller than wide. 

It can be sewn together in 2 ways - on the inside by hand or machine, starting at the corner & just to where the side flaps meet the main fabric. 

I did the patterned one this way. Turn right side out & lightly press. You can add a fabric / ribbon tie if you wish. 

For the second one, the construction was the same, it was machined with a lining fabric, but I joined the folded in sides with a blanket stitch and pearl cotton no8 on the top. 

This was quite tricky & I caught the inside fabric near the corner, but I did not unpick that little stitch. 

I personally prefer the patterned fabric but will make the machined seam bigger next time to reduce the bulk when it was pressed through. 

It is an interesting project that took me longer than I thought even though  it was an easy sew. 

I hope you will be inspired to have a go at one of these interesting bags. What would you use yours for? 

Thank you for stopping by, you are always most welcome. 

Dee 🪡🧵

Making Zen - Weaving remnants with intention

 I love participating in the Making Zen creative workshops twice a year - there are 25-30 workshops over the week  & I make notes of the new techniques I want to return to. The online workshops are for 24 hours only unless you purchase the VIP pass.  This year again, there is an ethos of using what you have rather than buying additional supplies & I am embracing this to whittle down my stash. 

Sometimes I am not sure if the workshop is 'me' but I watch as many each day as I can because knowledge is power, & I have often returned to my notes months later when I thought a technique would be useful for a completely different project. 

Lisa's Weaving Remnants with Intention was one such one - first painting a background on a thick card, marking out the weaving holes then using remnants / scraps to make a woven piece. 

I had some card that I painted but then thought it was a bit flimsy / wrinkly so I merely glued a second sheet behind it to strengthen it & give it substance.  Then it was time to mark up the painted card with pencil for the weaving threads - 11 holes marked top & bottom, lining up perfectly. I used my sewing awl to make the holes neatly. These were then threaded with a pearl cotton thread to make the warp threads of the card loom. 

I had some fabrics at hand from the other Zen project I was working on so these were cut  or torn in to strips, along with some wool to be woven on the 'loom' to form the weft threads. 

It was very relaxing to do something different & the little loom took no time to fill with interesting threads & fabrics. 

Lisa encouraged us to put in a quote or something & I decided mine was simply 

                               JUST DO IT 

I am guilty of procrastination & spending too much time planning so just going for something new is liberating.  Make something rather than just think about it too much, go with intuition. 

A great workshop that I had not blogged before, so I hope it inspires you to try something new. 

Thank you for stopping by, you are always very welcome to share my content 

Dee 🧵🎨🖌️👩‍🎨

Making Zen - sewing a pouch with a gusset ...

 Twice a year, life pauses while the Making Zen creative retreats are available on - the online workshops over 5 days are a creative wonder because I am exposed to new techniques that I did not even know existed by fantastic tutors online. 

This past one in May came at a busy time, but I printed off the materials list & saved the worksheets as they became available. I watch each day (4-5 workshops), make notes of the new techniques & do some I can fit in. They are available for 24 hours unless you purchase the vip pass. However, being time poor, I fit in the 24 hours & take inspiration from the new techniques. 

I often combine the techniques to make the most of it. What was really good was that all the tutors encouraged us to use what we had - make do & improvise; that is great for the environment. 

One of the workshops was using your fabric scraps to compose a new piece in colouring with your scraps. The tutor encouraged us to sort  fabrics, cut them up, rearrange them etc in to a unique new item with intentional use of colour & pattern. 

This was quite challenging to select with intention but I embraced it, recutting & re-assembling mine several times. I kept my colours to a  limited palette that I liked.

The second workshop was using a piece of silk fabric to make a pouch with a gusset to carry around sewing supplies when you are on the move. 

I decided to use the fabric from the 'Colouring with your Scraps' workshop that I had made as my base. It ended up on the pile, the unfinished effort willing me to finish it & today I finally had some time. 

I had decided on 2 shades of purple thread to go with the predominant colour & so it came downstairs to the conservatory table when I could work on it on the table protector where the threads wouldn't catch. The remit was to do some stitching over the joined fabrics, Sachiko or other & I used the variegated purple thread for that. 

I love just winging it, deciding where the stitching might complete a shape or add to the design. 

I used curved French seam stencils to give me some nice shapes. 

I use a heat erasable frixion pen  to draw lines on my work because a quick application of heat from a hairdryer or iron & the lines are all gone. Using a curved stencil makes it so much easier to get the shape you want too so you can concentrate on the sewing & get the result you want.  

The pouch was to be finished off with a gusset each side in felt & I confess to not having done one before so I consulted my workshop notes & the little drawing I did for help. I have a box of synthetic felt squares & found a colour that would go well with it. 

The top edge was first stitched, then the gusset was stitched to each side with a running stitch before the whole pouch was hand stitched with a blanket stitch all the way around. 

I need to add a closure to the pouch, perhaps a wrap around one to finish it off?  I am rather pleased to have ticked 2 workshops off the Zen retreat list (I had completed another 2 previously during the workshops) so this is a good result. 

As always, I am so grateful to the tutors who give up their time for these retreats. The video recordings, material lists & handouts all take their previous time & it gives so much inspiration. I have several more I want to do now that I am on my summer break.  What would you use this pouch for? 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always greatly appreciated. 

Dee 🪡🧵📍

A summery fruit loaf

Summer has arrived with some hot days for us - the humidity is high & it is rather draining. 

Being the weekend, we felt like something with our tea, but in my view, it is too hot for cakes. However, tea loaves are much lighter & they give you that energy hit when you need it. 

I really just winged it - this is how I did it ... 

In a bowl combine

about 1.5 - 2 cups raisins,  currants, cherries, cranberries etc - whatever you have to hand that you enjoy. 

Pour boiling water over a large mug of 2 bags of peach &  orange tea (with citrusy baobab) or whatever tea you have to hand. 

Pour over the fruit & leave to cool so the fruit can plump up. 

I left it for about 20 minutes but you can leave it overnight or for a few hours for really plump fruit.

I mixed 200 g of brown sugar with 200g of butter (optional), then added the fruit & the tea liquid to the bowl, mixed it up (mainly to break up the dates) then added about 300g of self raising flour & 1 egg.  I mixed it all briefly. 

This was placed in a lined loaf tin & baked at 160-170 C fan for 1 hour or until a knife came out of the centre cleanly. 

The loaf cooling safely away from all the things that buzz about in summer ... 

I think the next one will have lemon or orange zest in it for a zingy summer taste. There is some variation in online recipes about adding butter to the recipe - without is obviously healthier but I have done it both ways & both work. 

It does need to cool before slicing - I was impatient & sliced some which crumbled a bit as it was still hot ... 

Definitely better option to cake in hot weather with an ice cold juice. 

What is cooling  on your baking rack at the moment? Tell all ... 

Dee 👩‍🍳🍞🍇🍊

A free motion 'threads bowl' workshop

The life long educator in me loves learning opportunities & I avail myself to local courses whenever I can.

A local haberdashery shop runs interesting workshops. I have done several there & I did my first free motion workshop there a few years ago. It was for a 3D tree in a tea cup & it was great fun & I was delighted with the result even though I had to work through my machine settings to get set it up. 

This one popped up for Free motion threads bowl & it looked absolutely gorgeous - making a bowl using soluble fleece & then shaping it. 

It incorporates a fabric pattern you might like so the possibilities are endless. You have to take your own threads to match the sample of fabric you wish to incorporate as well as a glass cereal bowl to dry your shape on. 

What fun it was, the machines set up for just 2 of us, what a privilege to have a small class. 

Bobbin & machine threaded with a grey thread to do the 'spiders web' support for the bowl & soon the 2 machines were humming happily with a steady sound. 

Tea & cake while colours were threaded, we both opted for the variegated thread in pinks which saved on winding bobbins & rethreading the machines. 

Free motion machine embroidery using water soluble fleece relies just on threads to hold it all together when the fleece is washed away so you have to concentrate on the stitches touching each other & sufficient stitches to maintain a shape. 

I rather liked the example with a flower shape in it so I roughly drew one on my fabric & embroidered it, going over the shape several times to give it support. 

The variegated thread gave a lovely tone of pinks. 

Using circular movements helps to give your shape more structure because, from past experience, straight lines tend to collapse because they are not joined at enough points. 

I had a few flower fabric shapes cut out so those were machine embroidered on lastly, more to check the technique than a must, being aware that the circular shape will become a bowl shape so placements need to be right for when it is done. 

Un-hooped, trimmed of the excess soluble fabric then a quick dunk in a basin of warm water before it is placed over the glass bowl & eased in to the final shape.

 I straightened out some of the lines of thread, flattened some of the circular bits I had embroidered around the top edge etc. 

The two bowls were then left to dry over a towel overnight.

 The fabric bowls are then eased off the glass bowls & only then do you know if your stitches will hold the shape you want or if there will be a collapse needing a starch spray ... 

I returned to pick up my bowl this morning & all is well. It came off the glass bowl easily & holds its shape well. 

It is a flatter bowl but with interesting edge details & I am rather pleased with this first effort at a new technique. 

Are you up for new challenges too? What is on your list? Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🧵🪡🧺👩‍🎨

A charming medieval church in the woods ...

 

Whilst out in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, we came across this 12th century medieval church down a peaceful green lane in the hamlet of Linley (meaning Lime Wood). It is a redundant, Grade 1 listed church under the care of the Conservation Trust. 

 It had a sign board at the entrance for The Churches Conservation Trust - Historic Church - open 

It is built entirely from local stone except the dressing stones & tiled roof. 

The Norman Church &  late 12th century tower served the medieval town of Much Wenlock. 

The strapped, studded wooden door opens in to a space that is not showy at all - it is where local people have worshipped for 800 years & has seen life through good & bad times. 

I always think - if these walls could only speak, what history they have been witness to .... 

Entry is via a south doorway with a half arched carving above, a similar doorway is found on the back of the church; the north door was blocked off when the tower was added centuries ago but it still has it weathered tympanum details. 

The blocked off door (top image) has more detailed carving than the door now used but their design is so similar, just on opposite sides of the church. 

The green man details on the north door is with his legs open & foliage in his mouth ...

The interior (according to the church website, no booklet available) has Romanesque carvings like the round tub font near the door. 

The tiled floor was a later addition in 1800's, made locally by Maw & Co near Ironbridge. 

The church was quite dark inside (I couldn't get the lights to come on) because it has rather narrow windows. The altar has 3 windows behind it & 2 narrow stained glass ones. 

However, the altar has a charming triptych panel of a cross & angels that was painted about 1870 by Harry Burrows. 

The gold paint glistened even in the low light, a really lovely painting. 

The tiles are again by Maws with some cross shaped patterns at the altar. 

We walked around the church & the narrowness of the windows is very evident from outside, as is the north door & its detail that was blocked off. 

You can see how the narrow windows are set in to the deep stone walls - a narrow band of window in the large recess (top right).

It is a charming setting amongst lime wood trees & has a lovely peaceful feel to it. 

Sometimes country lanes lead to unexpected spaces & this charming church is beautiful for its simplicity & understated details that belie its long history. These more simple spaces often feel more spiritual because there is no showy details that detract from the space.  

I hope you have enjoyed the visit with me, 

Dee 🪾🌳⛪️ 🙏